Five Ways Agenda and Meeting Management Software Can Save You Time

As a municipal clerk, you take a hands-on approach to your work. You have to. You’re often seen as the staff member with all the answers when either citizens or internal staff members are looking for information. Whether it’s the latest agenda, the minutes from four meetings ago, a permit application, or a registration form, you’re the one who can put their hands on any essential document in the administration the fastest. Being so closely involved in a document management process often results in a tendency to take a very manual approach to file creation and maintenance. The problem for clerks, however, is that with shrinking budgets, smaller staffs, and greater expectations for on-demand access to a wider variety of civic resources, time is too limited for any processes to be inefficient.

If you’ve been hesitant to consider automating parts of your document management system, or you worry that learning how to utilize agenda and meeting management software will take too much time and effort, think again. By taking the time to implement the right solution, you’ll save yourself hours of time managing files every day—without ever losing your status as your community’s document resource master. Here are five ways that agenda and meeting management software will put time back in your workday.

1. No More Searching File Cabinets.

It’s estimated that employees spend 20 percent of their time searching for documents, in part because three percent of an organization’s documents are misfiled. Admit it. Even a document master like you sometimes gets stumped when asked to produce less commonly requested forms or applications. With agenda and meeting management software, any document you need is only a few clicks or a simple search away.

2. No More Standing at the Copy Machine.

Be honest, how much time do you spend standing at the copy machine before every board or staff meeting? How many times do you end up having to recycle everything you’ve previously printed, copied, and collated because there was a last-minute change, causing you to reprint everything again? Forget routing agendas and minutes in hard copy. With agenda and meeting management software that allows you to route files electronically, you’ll save hours every week, and can avoid the stress and mess that comes with being the staff member who needs to replace the printer ink.

A significant portion of your time every week is likely spent accepting and responding to requests from citizens for transparency documents. Most citizens would prefer to find the information they need online, rather than calling, emailing, or making a request in person. By implementing a software solution that allows citizens to quickly search for and obtain electronic copies of records, applications, files, agendas, and meetings minutes, you’ll receive fewer phone call every week, and you’ll have happier citizens. Everyone wins.

4. Access to Any File. Anywhere. Any Time.

Public sector operations rely on mobile access to content. When you’re out of your office at a board meeting, or across town at an event, and someone asks you the date that a critical piece of legislation passed, “I’ll get back to you,” is not an efficient option.” What is efficient, is looking up the information you need from the associated document right from your smartphone. Only a mobile-optimized agenda and meeting management software solution can provide such time-saving convenience.

5. Automate Agenda Creation Follow-Ups.

An inevitable loss of time for municipal clerks occurs with individual staff follow-ups to confirm agenda items and associated attachments, right? Wrong? A software solution that allows you to automate requests for agenda items and necessary follow-ups ensures you still get the information you need, without the time spent calling, emailing, or showing up at someone’s office to ask for their (late) input. Click here for more tips on how to get agenda item from staff members on time.

Ready to see for yourself how agenda and meeting management software can help put time back in your busy days? Click below to sign up for a demo of CivicClerk® from CivicPlus®.

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As the General Manager of CivicClerk, Doug understands the challenges associated with managing various boards and committees and the ever-changing role of the clerk’s office. Doug has over 15 years of experience in designing software solutions for local governments and special districts. He was the Founder of FOIA Systems and Co-Founder of SuiteOne Media and BoardSync. BoardSync was a leading meeting management platform for cities, counties, and special districts. BoardSync recently joined the CivicPlus team and is now CivicClerk.